Even with the success of Twitter many people have wondered how the company would begin to make money of off all the millions of tweets users post. Most people assume that Twitter will finally cave in and begin offering advertising on their website, though it seems the company is opposed to that currently, but has left the way open for the future. Yet, one thing the company isn’t opposed to is considering a check for access to the content on its site.

According to the All Things Digital website, Twitter is currently in discussions with Google and Microsoft to allow the companies to data mine all of its tweets. The thought is that users would then be able to use Google or Microsoft search engines to display search results of tweets alongside a list of websites and images. The deal is expected to include a payment in the millions of dollars as well as a revenue sharing deal from any ads displayed along with the Twitter search results.

Well, it’s nice to hear that Twitter may have found a way to generate significant revenue for the company. I must admit I wasn’t a big fan of Twitter simply throwing up ads to make money. That step tends to alienate users and quite frankly there are more interesting revenue streams which could be tapped. Clearly, this may be one of them.

There’s another smart thing that Twitter is doing with these deals. They are making sure that the deals are not exclusive. It’s smart for Twitter to remain search engine neutral. It will only mean more revenue in the long run.